Cake Byte: Trophy Cupcakes Embraces Bacon

You heard it here first, sweeties. Trophy Cupcakes is embracing bacon in baked goods! As reported from the owner's Facebook feed,

I was against jumping on the bacon bandwagon...but then Bacon Brittle came into my life. Chocolate Bourbon Bacon Brittle starts monday...and for those who just can't get enough of the brittle (damn, it's good!), we will be selling that on the side! YUM!

So, starting in just a few days, look out for this sweet treat in Trophy Cupcakes boutiques.

Find them online at trophycupcakes.com.

Sweet Outtakes: Sock Designs That Were Not Meant to Be

My mom tells me I'm a winner at the game of life, and that I can do anything I set my mind to.

However, even I realize that we can't win all the time. 

Last year, my "Trifecta" sock design, submitted to the Sock it to Me Sock design contest was given honorable mention in the contest and actually ended up entering the sock company's line (you can buy them here). This year, I tried again, with a few different designs. None of them won, but like I said, we can't win all the time.

Nonetheless, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the designs and have a fun peek at the behind-the scenes at CakeSpy Industries! Sadly, not all of the product ideas I have make it "to print", but that doesn't mean I don't love the process of making new products. Here are the "sock designs that were not meant to be": 

First, a many-scooped ice cream cone (pictured top);

Next, forks and knives thinking about spooning; 

Next, the inspiring message "donut worry, be happy";

...and finally, a dairy vs. soy milk smackdown!

Word of the Day: Butyraceous

File under "words that need to enter my actively-used vocabulary, and fast": Butyraceous. Here's all you need to know:

BUTYRACEOUS. bu·tyr·a·ceous - adjective

Pronounce it: byoo-tuh-rey-shuhs

Meaning: Of, containing, or resembling butter.

Use it in a sentence (with thanks to a clever comment here): Upon tasting the creamy topping on his toast, Fabio exclaimed, "I can't believe it's not butyraceous." 

Blueberry Pie Recipe from SpyMom

Guess what? SpyMom (that would be MY mom) made a pie. A glorious pie. One so simple and sweet, delightful to eat. SpyMom dubbed it "perfectly imperfect" in its final look, but judging by the little heart-shaped dollop of blueberry juice on top (do you see it?), I'd simply call it "perfectly lovable".

Happily, she was willing to share the recipe, which she has adapted from a version (I'm not sure which) of the Boston Cooking-School Cookbook.

Oh, and as an aside about the final result: it's the type of pie that is perfect with ice cream, but it also makes for fantastic breakfast-eating, too.

Of course, as SpyMom cautions, this pie was made with fresh New Jersey blueberries, and that's really what makes the pie. Since it's so simple, use the best blueberries you can--you won't regret it! 

Blueberry Pie

• 1 double-crust pie dough, unbaked. 
• 4 cups fresh blueberries, washed
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon butter 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees f. 

Line the pie pan with half of the dough (for a bottom crust).

Mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add the blueberries and lemon juice and toss well.

Pile the mixture into your prepared bottom crust, and dot the top with cut-up pieces of butter.

Roll out the top crust and drape it over the pie. Crimp or flute the edges to form a seal. Make several vents on top to let the steam out while baking.

Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees, and then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F. Bake for 30-40 more minutes, or until the top is browned.

Wedding Dessert Trend Alert from Dianne's Delights

The best way to find out what's trending in the world of wedding desserts? Ask someone who makes them. Dianne's Delights is a custom dessert-maker in Washington, and recently I hit them up to ask about some of the most requested items at celebrations. The most interesting ones, in my opinion? Wine-infused cake balls and dessert bars. Here, the sweet folks at Dianne's Delights were kind enough to share more information and thoughts on the trends: 

The ultimate wine lover’s dessert: Wine-infused cake balls! What’s better than wine and dessert? How about putting them together in a unique and delicious way. Recently wineries have been featuring these delectable infused desserts as part of their latest wine events. It is a way for wineries to create a unique experience for their customers. These wineries have been singing the praises of Dianne’s Delights who created this concept at last year’s Taste Washington event.  Dianne takes the wine and infuses it with her cake balls making a wonderful bite sized treat that balances the flavors perfectly. This idea is catching on quick and more and more wineries are asking for Dianne’s Delights to make them their very own dessert from their collection. 

Dessert Bars Gaining in Popularity! Move over, five-tier cake….there is a new trend brewing and it is catching on quickly: dessert bars. What are they? Well imagine a table filled with different dessert options that are sure to please everyone. As weddings evolve and people continue to look for creative ideas they are more and more looking to flip the old wedding stereotypes on their heads.

 Having two flavors of dry cake that only a percentage of your guests will actually enjoy is one of those old traditions we are glad to see going bye-bye. Instead, more and more brides are opting for a small topper cake (for the cutting ceremony) and a full dessert bar. This approach guarantees that more guests will enjoy dessert and is a fun and creative way to solve the dreaded wedding cake reality. 

Find out more and feast your eyes on photos of of dessert bars and wine-infused cake balls at www.diannesdelights.net.

Baked Good of the Day: Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Cupcake, Sugarush, Red Bank NJ

Decisions, decisions. Do you need a cupcake...or, do you need to stuff your face with at least five types of chocolate?

How about both?

You can satisfy both of these desires in one compact form by way of this mega-chocolate cupcake at Sugarush (tagline: "a Sweet Experience") in Red Bank, NJ (also home of Jay and Silent Bob). They provide this magical service wherein they will mix and match their frosting and cake flavors to create a unique taste experience just for you, and on a recent trip, I chose to experience CHOCOLATE. 

I did this by doing the following:

1. First, I chose the chocolate cake.
2. I then asked them to fill it with chocolate (thanks!).
3. Next, I requested that they top it with triple chocolate fudge frosting (thanks again!).
4. And finally, when offered a drizzle of chocolate and chocolate chips on top...well, I think you can guess what I said.

The next step was basically chocolate awesome overload. You know how sometimes such a hit of chocolatey goodness will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and like taking a little nap and cuddling in the sunlight afterward? This was that sort of experience. Don't pretend you don't know what I mean.

And believe it or not, the entire thing only cost less than $4. I forget the exact amount, but it was very reasonable considering all of the bells and whistles I got. 

Experience this magic yourself: visit Sugarush in Red Bank at 37 E. Front Street, Red Bank, NJ. Online here.

Sweet Art: Custom Wedding Invites

Love, sweet love. It's in the air this late spring-into-summer, and I know this because I've been working on a bunch of custom wedding orders. In addition to creating custom art for a wedding which featured CakeSpy-inspired Cake Pops, I also did custom invitations for another wedding. I've edited out the details to protect the customer's privacy (the actual invite had the actual date and details, not xx's and general locations) but I think you still get an idea of the cuteness!

Of course, how would the couple know how many would be in attendance if there were no response cards? And so, I also did a matching response card-postcard; here's the front of it. Sweet!

Thanks for taking a look, sweeties, and remember me if love is in the air--contact me re: custom orders! Custom invites start at $300 for a custom-designed piece.  

Batter Chatter: Interview with The Cravory, San Diego

About the author: Erin Jackson is obsessed with finding the best cheap and tasty eats in San Diego. Keep up with her other food finds on her San Diego Food blog, EJeats.com. 

The Cravory is one of San Diego's best cookie bakeries. Not only are the cookies exceptionally good from a technical standpoint (soft, chewy, and moist), they are also some of the most inventive. Like red velvet cake? They've got a cookie version. How about blueberry muffins or oreo milkshakes? They've got that too. There are also savory options like rosemary balsamic and pancakes and bacon -- and those are just some of the signature flavors. 

Every month, The Cravory also dreams up 6 "featured cookies of the month", which are typically even more unusual. This month, they've got mint chip ice cream, blackberry bliss, and chocolate birthday cake (among others). The bakery doesn't have a storefront, so you've got two options to get your paws on them. if you live in San Diego, you can pick them up from select retail locations and farmers' markets (read on to find out where) or you can order cookies online and have them shipped anywhere in the continental USA.

Cookies are available by the dozen, or if you're a serious cookie monster, sign up for the Cookie of the Month Club or go for the Ultimate Box Special, a 50-count assortment of all the signature flavors and some of the newest creations. Another option is to design your own cookies by choosing your dough and mix-ins. 

If you've got willpower issues and the thought of dozens of cookies just lying around presents an issue, you can always freeze them. When you're ready for more, pop the cookies in the microwave for about 15 seconds, or let them defrost on the counter. Cookies can remain frozen in their packing for 3 months, but who are we kidding? They won't last that long.

 

I spoke with Adam Koven, CEO of The Cravory to find out more about his history with baking, his favorite flavors, and what's in store for summer.

Your bio says you've always been a big fan of cookies. Did you bake when you were growing up, and if so, who taught you? A little bit, I cook more than I bake, but growing up, we always did cookies during the holidays. It's definitely in my genes, my great-grandmother was an amazing baker and she did the old European style baking, so I've definitely been involved with baking my whole life.

How old were you the first time you baked something by yourself, and what did you make?

I was probably 11 or 12. We always did the decorated sugar cookies growing up, which is ironic, because we don't do those at all now. 

Besides ordering them online, where can people find your cookies? On Sunday, we're at the La Jolla and Hillcrest farmers' markets, along with Wednesday evenings in Ocean Beach. As far as local businesses in San Diego, we're the featured dessert at Neighborhood, Craft and Commerce, and Leroy's Kitchen and you can get our cookies at The Deli Llama, and Shell gas station in Hillcrest.

How often do you come up with new flavors? Each month, we come out with 6 brand-new flavors each month, our cookies of the month. We carry 18 flavors online, 12 of those are signature flavors, including everything from sweet to savory. Those are our best-sellers from over the past year, and they don't change too often. We've only changed them once or twice because one of the new cookies really blew everyone's socks off, so we made it a signature flavor. But, every month we come up with 6 new flavors for the website, which get featured at the farmers' markets. The farmers markets are also where we test out new flavors. If they do well, they'll become a cookie of the month later on.

Do you work at the farmers' markets yourself? We try to go to the farmers' markets as often as possible. It's either my partner Nate or myself at the Hillcrest market and we have someone that does the Ocean Beach market and La Jolla for us.

Do you see the same people coming to get the same cookies frequently? We definitely have a very strong following at the farmers markets. It's pretty interesting, everyone that works the market has a different fan base, so to speak, but a lot of regulars come by. The really cool thing we do at the market is change our menu every week, so we have the people who come to see what's new and the people who come for their favorites. One of our favorite customers is only in town every third week or so and she absolutely loves the rosemary balsamic, which is one of the flavors we carry every week, but every time she comes, she buys us out. 

What are some of your favorite flavors that you've dreamed up recently?
My personal favorites right now are the chocolate truffle, even though I'm not a dark chocolate guy at all. That one is just unbelievably addictive and decadent and delicious. Our newest cookie, which was a cookie of the month and is now a signature, is the salted caramel cream cookie -- that one is amazing. And one of my all-time favorites is our original s'mores, which is original dough with milk chocolate, marshmallow and graham crackers.

Have you ever tried to make a flavor that didn't quite work? My business partner Derrick is our chef, and he's the one who comes up with all of the recipes and actually goes back to the kitchen and makes the cookies, and I'm actually the cook of the group, I make a BBQ sauce from scratch. Two years ago for Memorial Day Weekend, he stole a bottle of my sauce and decided to make a BBQ cookie with the sauce as a base, along with smoked almonds and BBQ chips. He said "Here's what you have for the market, see if you can sell 'em".  I took a bunch of them to the market and needless to say it wasn't a huge hit, even with the BBQ theme of summer, but it was definitely an interesting attempt to think outside the box.

Can you give us a hint of some of the new flavors you're working on for summer?

We have some amazing summer flavors coming out over the next few months, like cotton candy, apple pie, corn bread with candied bacon, and pink lemonade...the next few months are going to be a lot of fun in terms of flavors.

Sweet June: Cupcakes of the Month at Cupcake Royale

June is totally sweet at Seattle's Cupcake Royale--just take a look at their upcoming special flavors for the month!

First off, for dads, the "Stash" - a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting rolled in salty pretzel bits, topped with a handmade mustache topper. Adorable, sweet, and ever manly. Well, as manly as a cupcake can get I guess. 

Next up is perfect for grads, dads, moms, children, and anyone who loves awesome stuff: the Rhubarb Crisp! This is a vanilla cake topped with a buttercream made using locally produced rhubarb puree, topped with a brown sugar oat crumb topping. They're so good that you might suspect they're crack-filled!

Both varieties will be available in Cupcake Royale boutiques, the 'stache through Father's day and the Rhubarb all month long; go early in the day to ensure that you'll get one! Visit cupcakeroyale.com for locations and hours.

Baker's Dozen: A Batch of Sweet Links

Midwesterners: make a new ice cream flavor happen!

In Philadelphia? Decorate a cupcake! Delicious!

Novel I enjoyed: How to Eat a Cupcake

Speaking of cupcakes...make glow in the dark ones!

Banana bourbon ice cream sandwiches!

Sweet and creative: Edible rock candy jewelry!

A simple and delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Fun stuff to do with Drumstick cones!

Sweet shop I wanna visit: Paul A. Young

Nilla banana cookie balls!

Love me sweet: Elvis's favorite banana pudding recipe.

Cool down: make a milkshake with a cupcake.